These are the last days of summer before the kids go back to school in September and I have the next five days off from work!

Woohoo, so excited! I have so many things planned: I want to exercise, go hiking and kayaking, make some yummy food and hang out with my kids, make a fire in the back yard and watch the moon rise, plant some more flowers in my garden. You know, all the fun things you may not get to do in a weekend’s worth of time off when other things get in the way.

So what fun things have I done so far? Well, I have gotten up early everyday. I don’t want to feel like I have wasted a second of my vacation time just laying around sleeping! I have done yard work, changed the bed sheets, washed and folded laundry, washed dishes, cleaned the cat box, driven my kids all over the place, checked my email for work…you know, the usual. Hmm, wait a minute….I am on vacation here! What’s going on?

Although I have not exercised or gone hiking or kayaking as of this post, I have enjoyed some of life’s simple pleasures. I have played with our two new kittens (who still need real names-we can’t seem agree!), hung out with and took my daughter shopping on her 17th birthday, sat on my front porch and read a book, prepped the fire pit with kindling for tonight’s fire and have made some yummy food. I transplanted all of my houseplants, which I usually save for the dead of winter, but they looked like they needed some love, so I did that in a mild rain yesterday. My son and I are going to go out to play hacky sack in just a few minutes and we have plans for school clothes shopping tomorrow and kayaking and rock climbing on Sunday. All in all, I can’t complain…there have been no pressures to really keep to a time table…what could be better than that?

So what about you guys? How do you spend your time off from work?